Latest News & Features

Last year, the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers—an annual conference held at Meadowood in Napa Valley—introduced a new fellowship in honor of the late Frank Prial, longtime wine columnist at the New York Times.W&S Senior Editor Luke Sykora won the inaugural fellowship, and this year the fellowship went to Elaine Chukan Brown, who ...Read More

Walk into Cheryl Wakerhauser’s red damask–walled Portland patisserie, and the first thing you’ll notice are the empty Champagne bottles surrounding counters filled with multicolored macarons, chocolates and fancy desserts. “Bubbles excite me,” Wakerhauser, owner and head chef of Pix Patisserie, tells me. “There are so many different styles—big and weighty, or bright and fresh, perfect ...Read More

Whiskey is having a moment right now. Or, at least that’s how it appears in the pile of new books focused on the topic stacking up on the desks of the W&S editors. Noah Rothbaum, a veteran of the spirits ...Read More

Last year, the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers—an annual conference held at Meadowood in Napa Valley—introduced a new fellowship in honor of the late Frank Prial, longtime wine columnist at the New York Times. Read more ⇛

Pix Patisserie: Bubbles & Dessert

Cheryl Wakerhauser builds her restaurant around sparkling wine and patisserie. The pastry chef, owner and wine director of Portland's Pix Patisserie shares her baking prowess, presenting one of her favorite desserts to match with Champagne. Read more ⇛

Spirits Books for 2015

The flow of great spirits books has not let up since last fall, when we highlighted several standouts, including Death & Co, Liquid Intelligence and The Bar Book. Here are the best of the new releases for your library in 2015. Read more ⇛

In contrast to Rothbaum’s book, Lew Bryson’s compendium takes on the whiskey world in down-and-dirty detail, from production to tasting. With maps, infographics and flavor profiles for iconic bottlings, alongside Bryson’s smart, ...Read More

Latest Video

Cheryl Wakerhauser builds her restaurant around sparkling wine and patisserie. The pastry chef, owner and wine director of Portland’s Pix Patisserie shares her baking prowess, presenting one of her favorite desserts to match with Champagne. You can find a more in-depth report on Wakerhauser’s Champagne and patisserie, captured in an interview by Elaine Chukan Brown, featured in the December issue of Wine & Spirits.

Best New Sommeliers

Growing up in an Italian-American family that took wine and food seriously, Amy Racine always knew she wanted to work in the food world. “From the second grade I knew I wanted to be a chef,” she says. As soon as she graduated high school, Racine left Ohio ...Read More

A bit of non-direction landed Jeff Kellogg at the doors of a fledgling restaurant group in Charlotte, North Carolina, 131 Main. After helping the group open and expand four restaurants and a wine bar, he headed to the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia. Kellogg was seduced by the ...Read More

Wineries to Watch

Chris and Andrea Mullineux settled in Swartland in 2007, attracted by the region’s old-vine plots of syrah and grenache. The couple produces reds, but we were intrigued by their 2012 Swartland white. It blends old-vine chenin with clairette blanche and viognier, offering fresh peach flavors with pale scents of wheat and honey. And ...Read more

These are times of radical change in Zuccardi. Sebastian Zuccardi, third-generation owner, has led this traditional winery from Mendoza to explore the region in search of new flavors for its wines. At their new winery in Altamira, they are creating a series of wines deeply identified with their origins. Today, Zuccardi has ...Read more